Arsenal: Uncovered
Chapter One The last thing that was on Luke Morgan's mind as he entered Eastside High to start his sophomore year was the discovery he had made over the summer. Didn't want to tell anyone, had no reason to tell anyone, and, most importantly, he didn't want to be seen as a showoff. After all, it wasn't every kid who could run at 400 miles per hour. Luke knew his parents had given him and his two younger brothers explicit orders to stay away from the nuclear power plant. They said it did things to you, it would damage your brain or give you diseases...or give you powers that were too much for many adults to handle, let alone a fifteen-year-old. Luke and his brothers Steven and Hayden hadn't listened, and had hung out near there the whole summer. The day they decided to go inside for a look had been the same day the radiation had gotten out of control. And the day the boys got their powers. Luke could now honestly say he could beat anyone in a race. Twelve-year-old Hayden now had the power to freeze anything he wanted. But Steven had the most dangerous one of all. If there was any electricity present near him, he could draw it into his hands and shoot it back out, at an extremely high voltage. It was deadly in the hands of a third-grader. None of them were supposed to tell anyone, and that was the way Luke liked it. He was anything but a showoff. He was good at everything, anyways, and felt he had everything he wanted or needed. Until that afternoon, anyways. It was the last period of the day, and Luke just had his financial elective to go to and he'd be ready to go home. He walked past own of the classrooms and peered inside. The journalism class was finishing up, and he recognized most of the kids leaving the room. Except one. She was probably one of the freshmen, Luke thought, even though she could've passed for a few years older. Her steely gray eyes locked with his for a moment, and she walked down the hall towards the gym. Luke watched her until she turned a corner. "Oh, wow," one of Luke's classmates groaned, walking up behind him. "Don't waste your time on her." "Who is she?" Luke asked. "Dallas Byrne. You'd better stay away from her. Did ya hear what happened last period?" Luke shook his head as they entered their last class. "Nope, and where's Maxwell?" "That's exactly the point! Before Mrs. Schultz got into the classroom for journalism, Maxwell started flirting with Dally. She slapped him across the face, and he was out cold." Luke grinned slightly. "What was he doing?" "Nothing, really. Dally just doesn't hold well with such things. She's sworn she'll never date anybody or fall in love." "Wait...you say she just slapped him once and he was out? That's...unnatural." "Exactly. So is something else. Her eyes turn different colors. They were warm brown when she first walked in, then they turned this icy blue. When class was over, they were gray." Luke couldn't help but wonder if Dallas had been spending too much time near the reactor, too. When school was over, Luke decided to see if he could find out more about Dallas and see if his suspicions were correct. He found her in the lunchroom, with a few other kids, stacking chairs on the tables. Luke walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, Dallas? I needa talk to you for a while." Dallas shrugged her shoulders, glanced casually around the room, and walked out. "Look here, boy, if you're gonna try askin' me out, it's already failed. I don't have anything against you, but that's how I work," she said as soon as they were out of the room. "Oh, yeah. About that, you know, I was just wondering-" Dally cut him off. "I get what you want. And you aren't paying attention to what I'm sayin'. I'll make ya a deal. If you can beat me in arm wrestling, I'll go out with you. Got it?" Luke's eyes widened. "Yeah, well, what if I decline?" "I'll make sure all your buddies learn 'bout this. I'll tell 'em you're a first-rate coward." "Okay..." Luke was scared now. Dallas wasn't exactly the kind of girl who he'd expect to play nice and fair, and here was his proof. Five minutes later, back in the empty lunchroom, Luke wished he'd just said no. Dallas had left him with his hand literally stuck through the metal table, and was now watching him trying to get his hand out. "You need some help?" she grinned. "Er, no. You havin' a really bad day or what? Or just naturally overly nasty?" "You watch your mouth. And I really should be going." "No, wait! I really do need some help. Do you do junk like this all the time or-" Dallas grabbed Luke by the front of his jacket, yanked him out of the table, and threw him across the room. He crashed into the plaster wall, leaving a hole to match the one in the table. "See ya around, Luke," she said, and walked out. "Wait! Ouch! Really. You push me into the table, then you throw me into the wall?! And then you go and ruin my favorite jacket! It's real leather!" Luke sighed and shook his head. This wasn't working out well. He got up and pulled off his jacket, and started trying to put the zipper back in place. At least that was the only problem. He walked out of the lunchroom and leaned up against the front of the building, wondering if they'd get in trouble for the wall or table. Then Luke started working on the zipper again. "Want some help?" Luke jumped, startled, and turned around. He was expecting one of his classmates or a teacher, but here were a couple more of the freshmen. Luke recognized them from somewhere, maybe the eighth grade graduation last spring. "Uh, yeah, sure." He handed his jacket to the girl, who had the zipper fixed in a moment, then handed it back to Luke. "Thanks," he grinned. "Oh, and I was wondering, when have I seen y'all before?" "Probably everywhere," the boy remarked. "Sarina was captain of the basketball team last year, and valedictorian at our graduation." "And you?" Luke asked. This is getting awkward, he thought. "I was salutatorian at the graduation. I guess you were there. I'm Peter Byrne." "Wait-Byrne?" Sarina rolled her eyes. "I think I know what happened to your jacket," she said tartly. "At least, I do if you've got something with that name." "You had a run-in with my sister, didn't you?" Peter asked quietly. "Huh? You're Dallas' brother?" Peter laughed. "Yep, we're twins." Luke looked slightly puzzled. "You don't...look alike." Peter rolled his eyes. "Well of course we don't look alike. I'm a lot scrawnier than her." Luke bit his lip. "Sorry...didn't mean to say that, actually. I mean, you're blond. And...your eyes..." "They don't do the same thing as hers, if that's what you mean." "Yeah, that's it," he murmured. "Oh, and does she do stuff like that all the time?" Sarina shrugged. "I don't know...stuff like what?" "Like throwing people into walls, that sorta stuff." "No, she's just in a bad mood today," Peter replied. "What happened?" "Quit being a busybody," Sarina snapped. "It really isn't your business what happened!" "Okay," Luke shrugged. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I gotta go walk my little brothers home." Sarina and Peter told him bye, and Luke started for the middle school, three blocks away. Chapter Two Dallas didn't know if high school was just a waste of her time, or if it would serve her some use in the long run. Her first day, and she'd already ruined a table and the wall. Her parents wouldn't stand for that, even though they'd done worse things as kids. Dally got her powers from her father, and her dark hair from her mother. But she didn't have anything else in common with her parents. When they weren't doing hero work in some obscure place, her father worked as one of the lead doctors at the local hospital, and her mother had a job as a college professor. Dallas, with her C grade average, didn't have the brains for a job like that. She didn't really care, but her parents did. Her three brothers all had something they were good at they could use as a career. Peter was smart, good with money, and a natural leader. Thirteen-year-old Taylor could play at least five different musical instruments, and had been one of the best drama students at the school the previous year. Fifteen-year-old Ben was thinking of a career in architecture. Adam was twelve, extremely smart, and the reason Dallas had blown over that afternoon. He had the school bully, Westin, after him. The year before, Dallas hadn't let the kid anywhere near Adam. At lunchtime that day, Westin had cornered Adam. When Adam pushed him away so he could leave, Westin had slammed him into the wall. Now Adam was in the hospital with a concussion. Of all the people in the world, he was clearly the only one who understood Dallas. The two of them were closer than most siblings, and normally didn't fight with each other. Even though that was mostly because Adam lacked any powers of his own, for the time. And it was clear that embarrassed his parents, as did Dallas' grades, and anything else about their kids that wasn't exactly what they wanted. Peter was obviously their favorite. He had the brains Dally lacked, the powers Adam didn't have yet, the driven personality Ben couldn't care less about, and the want to use his power, unlike Taylor. Even though Taylor could both fly and become invisible, he almost never used his powers, and definitely never used them to prove anything. For a normal kid, he was pretty strong, and he preferred to be at the same level, talent-wise, that he would be without his powers. Dallas had felt like a misfit ever since she could remember. Even her best friend Sarina had everything. Dally had barely passed eighth grade, even trying her best, but Sarina sometimes purposefully missed a couple of questions on tests so she wouldn't seem too smart. But Sarina didn't have the one thing in life she really wanted-and that was Peter Byrne. She'd been crazy over Peter ever since she met him. Now he was dating the captain of the cheerleading team, Marie Richards, who was a year older and three inches taller than him, to boot. Dallas thought it was ridiculous, and had tried several times to break them up. It never worked. Sarina was sure Peter was under some sort of spell, and Dally knew something nobody else did. That was, until Sarina had seen something about Marie, something unnatural. More unnatural than the way I look, Sarina had thought. My hair looks dyed, and it's not. My eyes are too cold to be real. But Marie...she's gotta be able to read my mind. Somehow. She's just looking right into me. She knows how I feel about Peter. And she's using the kid for something. That evening, when Peter came home, neither of their parents were there and there was a note on the counter. It said that Adam wasn't doing too well, and he'd have to stay in the hospital overnight for the first time in his life. Peter immediately picked up the phone and dialed the filling station right outside town, where Dallas had a part-time job after school. "Um...anyone there?" Peter asked as soon as the ringing on the other end of the phone stopped. "Who is this?" "Peter Byrne. Can I talk with Dally for a moment?" Peter heard a couple of crashes, and winced. "Okay, Peter, I'm on now, whaddya want?" Peter explained what had happened, and Dallas was quiet for a few seconds. "I'll be over there soon," she answered finally. "But I can't stay all night. I gotta keep working till ten-" "Isn't there a law that says you can't work that much? You're still fourteen." "I don't care about laws if they don't make sense, now zip your mouth and I'll be over." There was a buzzing sound on the other end of the line, and Peter shrugged and put down the phone. Ten minutes later, Peter was outside the town hospital, waiting for Dallas. He was almost ready to give up and go inside when she snuck up behind Peter and tackled him, leaving a crack in the sidewalk. "You nuts or what?" Peter snapped. "Your favorite brother is in there, and you're out here fooling around." Dallas sighed. "I'm sorry, but you take everything way too serious. I mean-" "You wish I took life as a joke, like Taylor? I don't think so." "It's called balance. Bein' well-rounded." "What do you know about well-rounded! All brawn, no brain, that's it to you." Dallas took a couple of steps back and pushed one of the streetlights over, aiming it right at Peter. He shot out his hand and stopped it three inches above his hand, leaving Dallas with a scowl on her face. "You think too hard, buddy. Give your mind a break." "Maybe if you thought harder, you wouldn't be considering dropping out of high school! Get real!" Dallas grabbed at Peter, just as Luke Morgan stepped around the corner. "What's the problem?" he asked coolly. "Hey, Luke," Dallas said softly. "Whatcha doin' here?" "Er, I'm just gonna pick up my little brothers, they've been visiting a friend in the hospital." "Who?" Peter asked. "Adam something-or-other. I can't-" "Wait!" Dallas interjected. "Adam Byrne? My kid brother?" Luke shrugged. "Maybe. You know my brothers? Steven and Hayden?" Peter started laughing. "What's so funny?" Luke snapped. "Nothing, except that Dallas pokes fun of Steven's hair nonstop each time she sees him. I remember him and Hayden coming over once." "I'm positive that kid really needs a tan and somethin' to make his hair a shade darker," Dally smirked. Luke frowned. "Knock it off, you. What room are they in?" "Twelve, I think," Peter said. "Quit being annoying, Dallas. Come on."